


Flowers in the Field

by noirangetrois



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Blood, Gen, Songfic, The little vignettes are not chronological, but hopefully it's not too confusing, throwback thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-17 21:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16982352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirangetrois/pseuds/noirangetrois
Summary: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei go to war, but not everyone survives. Those who do return to the scene of battle to remember those who were lost.





	Flowers in the Field

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic that I wrote 17 years ago while backpacking across the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The song is called "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," and is originally by Pete Seeger. I learned it as a camp song at a girl scout camp I went to the year before, and it really stuck with me.

~ _Where have all the flowers gone,_  
_Long time passing?_  
_Where have all the flowers gone,_  
_Long time ago?_ ~

Duo brushed his bangs away as he looked out over the field. He almost didn't notice the traces of blood that came away on his fingers. There was more splattered on his face, and the rest of him. Some his own, most not. He grabbed his sword from where he had stuck it in the ground. Cleaning it on a brush of grass, he put it in his scabbard and began to make his way through the dead and dying.

A few of the other soldiers were stumbling though the morass of blood and bodies; more were lying or half sitting in the mud. It had been a beautiful field, before.

~ _Where have all the flowers gone?_  
_Gone to young girls every one._  
_When will they ever learn?_  
_When will they ever learn?_ ~

Heero laughed, really laughed. He had finally gotten out. He was never going back to that place. As he sat up, he saw a girl walking toward him. She was younger than he by about two years, probably around six. A puppy bounded around her heels and her curly blond hair bounced as she giggled.

He peered curiously at what she held in her hand. It was yellow, and pretty. He had never seen anything like it before.

"Hello." She was smiling at him. He smiled back. He had good reason; he was free.

"Are you lost?" she asked. "I haven't ever seen you here."

"I.. I don't know..." He wasn't sure. Was he lost? He'd never been here before.

"Well, would you like my flower? I'm on my way home, and Mama doesn't like flowers in the house. She's allergic." She held out the yellow thing in her hand.

"A flower?"

She giggled. "Of course it's a flower. Haven't you seen one ever?" He shook his head as he took the curious thing.

"Well, I have to go. Mama doesn't like it when I'm late. Goodbye!"

Heero sat, looking at the flower as the girl and her puppy walked away.

~ _Where have all the young girls gone,_  
_Long time passing?_  
_Where have all the young girls gone,_  
_Long time ago?_ ~

Quatre gazed up at the sign over the door. If not for that and the faint light coming through the grimy windows, he would have passed it off as long-abandoned and long-forgotten. Shuffling through his pocket, he pulled out a few coppers. Hopefully it was enough for a bed and a hot meal. By the looks of this place, it wouldn't be expensive.

He opened the door and a warm glow spilled out through the doorway. As he stepped inside, the few patrons sitting at the tables glanced up at him. He looked around and saw the innkeeper speaking with a serving girl. He stopped. She looked... a lot like one of his sisters. He closed his eyes briefly. That life was far behind him.

~ _Where have all the young girls gone?_  
_Gone to young men every one._  
_When will they ever learn?_  
_When will they ever learn?_ ~

Tears trickled down his face as he kneeled down beside her. Wisps of black blew across his face in the wind. Wufei caressed her cheek in his hand. It was cold, now. Her own dark hair was blowing in the wind as well. Her eyes were shut, and blood had dried on her forehead. More of it, still sticky, plastered her shirt to her stomach.

He had failed. They had not been married a year, and now she was dead. The tears blurred his vision as he carried her gently away from the field where more dead men and women lay. He would bury her himself.

~ _Where have all the young men gone,_  
_Long time passing?_  
_Where have all the young men gone,_  
_Long time ago?_ ~

"Nanashi!" He looked up. "Nanashi, come over this way!" Standing, he made his way over to the man.

"Nanashi, there you be. Now listen well, this be important. You know of the war, yes? The war that be starting? We men be off to fight. You can't come along, though. You be too young for the fighting. We be sorry to have to leave you, but there be no choice. You'll have to find your own way in life, now."

Nanashi blinked, not quite understanding, before he nodded. The men around looked at him, as if they felt sorry. Perhaps they did. He turned, and began to walk away.

"Don't you want some food? You be needing more of late!"

He turned his head to look back at them.

"And a jacket? It be cold at night!"

Once again, he turned and began to walk away.

"I have to make my own way in life, now," he called over his shoulder. The men were silent.

~ _Where have all the young men gone?_  
_Gone to soldiers every one._  
_When will they ever learn?_  
_When will they ever learn?_ ~

Relena watched quietly as her brother gathered his things together. Nothing she said would stop him from leaving. He wanted to fight.

He looked at her once before stepping out of the door, as if recognizing her existence was enough to say farewell.

"Goodbye," she whispered to his back as he walked away down the road.

~ _Where have all the soldiers gone,_  
_Long time passing?_  
_Where have all the soldiers gone,_  
_Long time ago?_ ~

The flag, stuck in the ground, waved feebly in the wind. Heero didn't know who had been carrying it. It could have been any one of the dead men lying around him. He looked up as he heard someone coming toward him. Standing when he recognized the other, he began to walk over to him.

"You made it."

Duo nodded, looking around. "Let's go see who else survived, shall we?"

Heero grunted in agreement as they began to walk though the bodies, searching.

~ _Where have all the soldiers gone?_  
_Gone to graveyards every one._  
_When will they ever learn?_  
_When will they ever learn?_ ~

Heero shook his head as Duo watched him expectantly. Turning from the corpse, he took Duo's hand and began to lead him away. He could feel tears begin to trickle down his face.

"Why, Heero? We lived, why didn't they?"

"I don't know," Heero said softly. "I don't know."

Duo was crying now as well. They had been friends, them and the three other boys. Now Duo and Heero were the only ones left. Heero looked around. It had been such a beautiful field. There had been flowers in it, like the flower the girl had given him. It seemed a lifetime ago.

~ _Where have all the graveyards gone,_  
_Long time passing?_  
_Where have all the graveyards gone,_  
_Long time ago?_ ~

Relena sat looking over the field, twirling a flower in her hand. It had been here, those many years ago, where her brother had died. She remembered seeing this face, after the battle. Mud and blood where there had once been grass, and flowers.

The bodies had been cleared away or buried a long time since. Now, there was grass again. Grass, and flowers. Everywhere.

~ _Where have all the graveyards gone?_  
_Gone to flowers every one._  
_When will they ever learn?_  
_When will they ever learn?_ ~

There was a girl by the field, sitting there. Her long blond hair swayed slightly in the wind as they made their way in that direction. It was hard not to see the field the way it had been those years before, covered in bodies and the grassy expanse turned to mud.

Duo subconsciously checked to make sure his sword was clear. He was only a little surprised when he found it wasn't there. It had been so long.

Heero nodded a greeting to the girl when she looked back at them. Her gaze returned to the field. There were flowers, now, like there had been before. Like the one he had been given when he was eight. They sat down next to her, gazing out over the field as well.

The three of them stayed there a long while. Lost in memories, it was almost as if they were back before the battle, when none had known the others, and life was good. And then that day had come, when friends and family were lost forever. It had been a beautiful field, once. Now, finally, there were flowers again.

~ _When will they ever learn?_  
_When will they ever learn?_ ~

~owari~

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! This is one of my very favorite fics, and I hope you enjoyed it. Comments and kudos are much appreciated!


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